I Miss You
by Belle Walker
Summary: He misses her.  So he does something about it.
1. Chapter 1

My first Hellcats fic, prompted by the 2 little scenes between Julian and Marti in the short promo for episode 1x21. Written before I saw the longer promos which totally blew my story to pieces…

Two and a half weeks.

That's how long it had been since she'd last seen Julian.

That day was etched in her brain for all time. She'd knocked on his apartment door one Friday afternoon, he'd opened it, but instead of a smile or that little smirk he reserved for her, there was a look she'd never seen him exhibit before.

A look of apprehension.

And then a second later, she found out why. A little girl had ducked under his elbow and greeted her with a friendly, "Hi!"

Surprised, Marti forgot to return the greeting, and simply looked up at Julian with a question in her eyes.

"Marti," Julian began apologetically. "This is my daughter, Nicky. She's…staying with me for a while. Her mother had an accident."

Marti snapped out of her stupor enough to say a bit awkwardly, "Oh…okay."

"Did you want to come in?" Julian asked, figuring there was something she needed his help with.

"No," she answered, taking a step back. "It's okay, I don't want to intrude…"

Julian looked a little disappointed. Or maybe relieved? Marti wasn't sure which.

"We can talk later," she said with more finality, her feet itching to get out of there.

Marti was ashamed at her retreat. It was something that her newly-found sister Deirdre would have done, not the girl who went after what she wanted.

"Okay," Julian said simply, leaning slightly on the open door. He watched as Marti turned and walked away, and with conflicted thoughts he let her go.

"Who was that, Daddy?"

He gave a tug to Nicky's pigtail, still gazing at Marti's back. "A friend." The blonde curls disappeared around the corner, and he finally clicked the door shut.

Julian hadn't seen her since.

Oh, they'd still talked through email, or cell phone texts, but not face-to-face like they normally did.

Marti assured him she wasn't scared off by a child, that she just didn't want to steal any time he could be spending with his daughter.

It did sound pretty lame, to read that in a text message where he couldn't see the truth in her face or hear it in her voice. But he gave her the benefit of the doubt and didn't press the issue.

Tuesday evening, two and a half weeks after last seeing Julian, Marti went back to the Cheertown building after classes to relax and to think. She was grateful for the peace and quiet of the empty space, for on the squad's one night off from cheer practice everybody else was currently off doing their own thing.

She sat on the overstuffed couch, cell phone in hand, debating whether she should call Julian or not.

He was probably busy.

Marti put her phone down and picked up the TV remote. _Jeopardy_ was on, and probably the best thing to distract her, anyway.

Twenty minutes into the show, the doorbell rang. A stranger with a vase of cut flowers stood in the hall.

"Marti Perkins?" the kid asked.

"Yeah, that's me," she answered.

"These are for you." The kid handed her the flowers. "Have a nice night."

"Thanks," Marti answered distantly, wondering who would have sent her flowers and why.

Would Julian have sent them?

Intrigued, she shut the door and took the vase to the counter.

Her name was clearly written on the little envelope nestled among the blossoms. She pulled it off the plastic clip and started to slide out the card that was inside.

"Hi, Marti!" a perky voice startled her from across the room, and Savannah Monroe strode in with Dan Patch firmly in tow.

Marti poked the envelope into her front pocket before turning around to greet her friends. "Hey, guys."

"Nice flowers," Savannah commented, taking a seat at the tall counter.

"Hmm, no card," Dan observed quickly, glancing at the empty plastic clip. "Who's the secret admirer?"

"Nobody," Marti lied, putting on her best poker face. "Just somebody I helped out a while back."

Savannah bought it immediately, but Dan knew her better than that. Her face might not betray it, but that tiny inflection in her voice certainly did.

But Dan let it go, because whoever it was, it was Marti's business, not really theirs.

"Um, I have to go…do something," Marti excused herself from the room, taking the flowers with her.

She escaped to the bedroom she shared with Savannah. The flowers went to her nightstand, and the envelope came out of her pocket.

Marti sat on the edge of the bed, fingering the small white rectangle. Even though it came with a pretty bouquet of flowers, she was a little afraid to open it.

"Positive outcomes only," she told herself. That was their team captain's mantra, and a good one to live by.

She took a deep breath and opened the envelope.

'_I miss you,_' it said. That was all. Just three little words, but powerful in their meaning.

His name wasn't signed to it, but there wasn't any other person it could be besides Julian.

Marti couldn't help the grin that spread across her face, and she sniffed her bouquet for the first time.

She needed to see him.

Marti ran out of her room but abruptly slowed her pace to a casual saunter as she passed Dan and Savannah in the main room. "I'll see you guys later," was all she said as she hauled her bicycle out the door.

She pedaled the familiar route and was at his doorstep only 10 minutes later. She knocked and waited, hoping he was home.

The door opened and there he stood.

"Hey," Marti said quietly.

"Hi," he answered in a similar tone, waiting patiently, as he always did, for her to speak again.

Uncertainty from her was something he wasn't used to, and it reflected now in her voice. "Do you…miss me?"

A smile played on his lips, as he knew she must have gotten the flowers by now. "Yeah…I do."

It didn't take much for her to smile back. She glanced down briefly but looked back up at him again with a new softness in her eyes. "I missed you, too."

He opened the door all the way, and his arm was around her waist before their lips even touched. He pulled her inside and flung the door shut.

They clung to each other with a passion that their first kiss had held, intense and needy… cautious and reckless all at once.

Breathless, they came up for air.

He inhaled deeply, resting his forehead lightly against hers with eyes closed, drawing energy from her presence.

Marti swallowed the lump of emotion in her throat and gathered enough voice to ask, "Where's Nicky?"

"At a friend's house." Julian answered, opening his eyes and pulling back just enough to look into hers. He hesitated, then added, "She's spending the night there...if you wanted to spend the night here."

She took four seconds to think about it, then answered with another kiss…long, slow, and seductive.

That was all the answer he needed.

They shuffled their way to his bedroom, leaving a scattered trail of clothing in their wake and crashing upon his bed in a tangle of lips and limbs.

Afterward, as Marti drifted off to sleep, Julian lay awake, thinking. He looked down at the mess of blonde curls spilling over his shoulder, at the smooth and creamy arm splayed across his chest.

He was finding himself in serious trouble here. This was not a crush. Not a fling. He was honestly and truly falling in love with this girl.

When had he become so powerless to resist her? He was by no means a weak or timid man. He'd gone head-to-head with the toughest people, the most unyielding laws, the most complicated cases.

And yet anything she asked him to do — whether it went against his better judgment or not — he did them. He did them for her. And he did them just because she asked him to.

He ran his fingers along the back of her left hand where it rested on his chest, his touch lingering at her ring finger.

How would that finger look with a diamond on it?

It would be beautiful, of course.

He linked his fingers gently with hers. Maybe someday there would be a diamond on that finger. Maybe he'd even be the one to put it there.

For now, he was happy just to have her at all.


	2. Chapter 2

She lay alone and awake in a large comfy bed with blanket and sheet tangled around her.

The bed would have been even comfier if Julian was still in it, too.

But he wasn't. It was Wednesday morning, almost 10:00, and apparently he'd left for work without even a goodbye.

So much for his 'missing her'. One night of passion and he's good to go.

Marti sighed to herself. She should be in class right now, not in the rumpled bed of her former professor.

She got up to use the bathroom. Then she found her bra and underwear from the night before and put them both back on. Her outer clothes she'd have to find in the living room wherever Julian had flung them.

_Julian_, her mind echoed in a sigh as her body tingled at the memory of his touch. That man gave her goosebumps at times.

Oh, look at that — he'd left one of his button-down shirts draped over a chair by the dresser. Convenient.

Marti held the soft white cloth to her face, breathing in the clean scent of whatever laundry detergent he used.

She slipped it on over her bra and underwear, reveling in its warmth and coziness and pleased with the intimacy of just wearing something of his.

She ventured to the living room to collect the rest of her clothing. She found her things neatly folded on the couch, and Julian had picked up his own discarded clothing too.

Nice to know that he wasn't a slob.

She shook out her jeans and was about to put them on when she heard a rustling of paper from the kitchen.

Maybe Julian was still there after all. Or maybe a burglar had broken in and was reading his newspaper before robbing the place.

She dropped her jeans back on the couch and walked softly on bare feet toward the kitchen. "Hey," she greeted in surprise. "I thought you went to work."

"I took the day off," Julian said with a shrug, eyeing her half-dressed state over his shoulder. "What about you? Don't you have classes today?"

She shook her head, messy curls bouncing. "I took the day off," she mimicked his tone with a smile on her lips.

He had a steaming cup of coffee beside him on the table. Marti reached for it and stole a sip — and immediately regretted it. "Oh — ugh!"

Julian only laughed at her. "I drink it black."

"Yuck!" Marti laughed too, darting to the kitchen sink and cupping a hand under the faucet to get a handful of water and rid her mouth of that bitter taste.

Julian just grinned, turning his attention back to his newspaper.

Marti dried her hand on the hem of the shirt she still wore, then took the newspaper out of his hands and laid it on the table.

She settled herself sideways on his lap, bringing her hands up to cup his face on both sides.

"Good morning," she said solemnly, her thumbs lightly caressing his jaw line.

He smiled softly back at her. "Yes, it is." His arms slipped around her waist as he went in for a kiss.

Marti wound her arms up around his neck and leaned into him. She smiled against his lips. "You do realize we're kind of hugging, right?"

"Yes," he murmured back. "But we're kissing too…and that makes up for the hugging."

She giggled, sitting up straighter to look at him again. "You see? This hugging thing's not so bad."

"Hmm…depends on who's hugging me back."

"What if it's me?" she asked seriously.

He pretended to think it over. "I might be able to get used to that."

She gave a little smirk of triumph, but slid off his lap. "Got anything to eat around here?" she asked with an impish peek into his fridge.

"I had a bagel earlier," he replied, picking up his newspaper again. "I'm afraid you missed your chance to eat it off my plate, though."

"Ooh," Marti scoffed at his bringing up one of her mealtime habits. "Just for that, I'm going to make somebody else hug you."

"What horror," Julian deadpanned, unconcerned.

"By the way…" he offered smoothly in his honeysuckle southern accent, keeping his eyes fixed deliberately on his paper. "You look incredibly sexy in my shirt."

"You want it back?" she teased, making like she was going to undo the buttons going down the front.

"Yes, I do," he readily accepted her challenge, dropping his newspaper onto the table and leaning back in his chair with that smug little look on his face. His gaze traveled down her body and back up again. "Hand it over."

But Marti had an evil streak. She undid the buttons as she sauntered out of the room, and only when she was around the corner and out of his sight did she toss the shirt back to him.

Back in the solitude of the living room, Marti put on yesterday's jeans, t-shirt and hoodie. She hated wearing already-used socks, but had no other option.

She finished tying the laces of her shoes just as her cell phone rang. She poked both hands into her pants pockets and came up empty, but found the phone in her hoodie pocket instead.

"Hello?" She paused. "Whoa, Savannah — slow down. What's going on?"

Having heard the phone ring and Marti's subsequent talking, Julian came into the living room to observe.

He stood before Marti in silence, returning the steady gaze she kept on his face as her cheer squad captain rattled off a long panicked monologue in her ear.

"Yeah," Marti answered briefly into the phone. "No, I'll be there. Give me a few minutes. Promise me you won't do anything until I get there."

She ended the call with a deep sigh, momentarily breaking her visual bond with Julian. "I have to go. Yet another crisis in Cheertown."

He nodded, disappointed. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

It was sweet of him to ask. But she shook her head in the negative. "It's just cheer stuff."

She really didn't care the least bit about a 'cheer crisis' in itself, but the scholarship she got from her place on the squad made it necessary to solve the problem as quickly as possible.

It was probably a good thing Marti had to leave, anyway. She wanted Julian to miss her some more, and how would he do that if she hung around all day?

Marti jammed her phone into her front jeans pocket. "Well…bye," she said with a regretful smile.

"Goodbye," Julian echoed, wishing she wasn't leaving already.

She gazed at him a moment longer, stalling, then turned to the door.

But a hand on her wrist gently tugged her back, and all of a sudden she was in his arms once more.

That was one seductive kiss he gave her, and a mean thing to do when she had to leave.

And then he smiled down at her smugly before letting go with a gentle push toward the door. "Go help your friends."


End file.
